Food is a major player in the annual calendar, tracing the harvests throughout the fruit and veggie capitals in the south of France. The lemon is honored in Menton with a citrus sculpture fest, paraded through the town each Sunday during February every year, on gigantic , kitsch, fruity floats based on popular cartoon and fairytale character, one of the themes was Pinocchio.

The Uzesgarlic fair on June 24, when the village is piled with bulbous, purple cloves and a flame is carried at night from one village to the other up to Mont Ventoux. This celebration has wafted through Provencal history since 1571, when it received its letters patent from Charles IX.

The melon celebration, or” the brotherhood of the knights of the order of the melons of Cavaillon“, are enthroned in July for the Melon Festival in the town where the writer Alexander Dumas offered 300 hundred copies of his work in exchange of an annuity of 12 Cavaillon melons a year.

Arles starts the harvest of the Camargue rice in September with La Fete des Premices du Riz, staging bullfights in the ancient arena, and a grand corso – A parade of decorated floats led by the Ambassadrice du Riz on a Camargue Pony.

The soup festival in Vaison la Romaine will keep you warm through October and November.

The Autumn chesnut harvest in Les Maures is celebrated in Collobrieres, marronsglaces Capital de la France.

Winter truffles are very big news. Le Marche aux Truffes at Rognes features Minstrels , cheered by the astronomical truffle prices. In January , St Antoine patron Saint of truffle hunters, is blessed in the church at Richerences in the Drome by the confrerery des Chevaliers du diamont Noir.

In November is the start of the Olive Oil pressing season is accompanied by costumed Arlesiennes, Gardians on horseback and also an olive spitting competition at Mouries in the vallee des Baux later holding Huiles -primeurs in December, when the new oil harvest is baptised.

In January and February, the fishing villages of Sausset-les-pins and Carrie-le-Rousset on the blue coast, a rocky stretch between Marseilles and Martigues celebrate the prickly sea urchin in the Ousinades, communal feasts on the quayside.

During the September recoltes, wine flows freely, with a wine festival in Cassis and blessing of the vines. Also go to Chateauneuf du Pape and other prime cote duRhone villages at the end of May and early June.

On the first Sunday in December, La Fete du Millesime takes place in the port de Bandol. 52 vintners bring keg-loads of their three- month -old wines for a public tasting, before putting them in wooden casks for 18 months.

The ultimate gourmet activity is Christmas. For the traditional Christmas eve dinner, the Provencal table offers 13 desserts that symbolize Christ and the twelve apostoles and are also a gathering of the region’s fruits and sweets. the desserts are La pompe a l’huile , a biscuit made with olive oil and fleur d’oranger ( Flower water); white and dark nougat. Les quatre mendiants, ( the four mendicant orders) Hazelnut for Augustine Friars, figs for Franciscans, almonds for Carmelites,raisins for Dominicans) and fresh fruits: dates , oranges, mandarins, apples,pears and grapes. Local specialties such as Callissons d’Aix, melon or candied fruits, are very often substituted for one element or the other.

Unless you are visiting one of the markets, just forget about sightseeing in Provence on Sundays. Shops, public transportation and museums grind to a halt. Have a long lazy lunch instead, then go for a stroll in the countryside. A great place to eat is l’Ousteau de Baumaniere, in Les Baux de Provence , they used to serve a bloodyMary sorbet stuffed in a tomato, it was just delicious to the taste. In the summer time it is a great place for people -watching, I also like the terrace where you can enjoy the sun as you eat. Also don’t always order rose with everything, Provence also has wonderful reds. Bandol is one of my favorite villages, very pretty and it produces some of the finest wines. Wander the streets and make a stop for wine tastings.

A few recommendations for shopping in Provence.

Amandine, 69 Boulevard Eugene – Pierre, Marseille. If you love chocolate you are in for a treat because this is a temple to the owner’s love of everything chocolate. It also sells teapots in numerous variations as well as postcards. http://www.patisserieamandine.fr

Avignon’s Flower and flea market.

Located in Place des Carmes it’s always worth making a stop on Sunday mornings. Amid the huge flower displays, you will find ornements and bric-a-brac, including herb cutter for your Provencal thyme.

The sizes and shapes and colors of olives in Provencal markets are truly astonishing. Dorade , a Mediterranean sea Bass with a very delicate flavor and exceptionally tender flesh is on sale at the markets. You will also find sacks of chickpea flour, kidney beans, lentils and split peas in the Provencal markets.

Provencal eating habits loyally respect the seasons; people shop daily and the freezer is held in suspicion. In mid-summer , when the abundant tomatoes are at their sweetest and have their greatest depth of flavor, when fresh basil abound and the market is flooded with tiny , freshly picked green beans , a sort of truly abandon takes over. The taste of all fresh things is so pure and so intense that the less one does to them , the better they are. With a bouillabaisse the Marseillais opts for a glass of white wine from Cassis and the Toulonnais ( who god forbids adds potatoes and mussels to their Bouillabaisse), The Marseillais are totally horrified. The Toulonnais will accompany their Bouillabaisse with a Rose or a cool young red from neighboring Bandol.

In the fall during the grape harvest, everyone who makes wine draws off a portion of unfermented juice and boils it down to concentrate the natural grape sugars before seeding it with yeasts by adding some of the fermented wine. The result is a sweet desert wine called vin cuit. ( cooked wine), which is kept by all Provencal families for special traditional meals – It always accompanies the thirteen desserts of the Christmas eve supper.

Provence is less celebrated than the Perigord for its truffles, but Valreas, a small village in the north of Vaucluse, is an important truffles center so are other small towns all over Provence. These very magical parasites growing beneath the earth near oak trees and hazelnut trees begin to appear in mid- November and find their greatest use in the region at Christmas time but they are the ripest , richest at least in January and February. They are thrown into omelettes and fresh pasta, sauteed with potatoes or savored by themselves. People eat them in season only and often cook up a pound of them in a bottle of Chateauneuf for their Sunday meal.

The Famous Soupe au pistou is a minestrone invigorated with a heady paste made of garlic, fresh basil and parmesan cheese and olive oil stirred into it at the moment of serving. The chef and owner of Les Bories prepares it with fresh vegetables. Pistou is the Provencal word for “Pestle”. The result will be much better if newly shelled white beans are used. Onions are often added and , and in some parts of Provence, a large chunk of diced pumpkin is considered essential for the smooth, voluptuous texture it lends to the soup as it cooks into a puree.

The following recipe is a Nicoise version. The French beans and diced courgettes ( zucchini) should be added at the same time as the pasta to retain their flavor.

2 pounds fresh white beans

1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced

1 pound very ripe tomatoes, peeled , seeded and diced.

1/2 pound leeks ( white and tender green parts cut into rounds

Salt

1 pound zucchini diced

3/4 pound very thin small green beans, trimmed

1/4 pound short macaroni or spaghetti, broken up

For the pistou.

Coarse salt, fresh ground pepper

6 cloves garlic

25 or more basil leaves

1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

Start the fresh white beans cooking in a pan with 4 quarts of water. bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and leeks to the haricots beans and simmer for about 45 minutes or more, until all veggies are melting. Add zucchini, green beans and pasta and cook for 20 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, make the pistou . In a mortar or a cuisinart, grind together a good pinch of coarse salt, pepper, garlic and basil. Pound carefully at first but then more roughly, until the basil and the garlic are reduced to a coarse puree. Add some of the cheese and pound to a paste, loosen with a bit of olive oil, stirring and pounding.

Serve the hot soup from its pot and present the mortar of pistou or a bowl at the same time so each guest may season the soup to taste.